Unique graphical interface revolutionizes the estimate – production process
HiFlow Solutions announces its participation in the 2020 InterTech Technology Awards, sponsored by Printing Industries of America. The InterTech Technology Awards honor the development of innovative technologies for graphic communications and related industries, which will have a significant impact for the printing and packaging industries. HiFlow Solutions chose to enter its most significant innovation, the HiFlow Workflow Diagram.
The HiFlow Workflow Diagram is a one-screen, graphic view of the entire production workflow from prepress through production. Its graphic representation makes workflow understandable, and quickly and easily accessed. Graphical presentation makes it easy for estimators, production planners and schedulers to quickly see a job’s complete workflow.
To get to this place, HiFlow’s team developed several innovations.
Most MIS and ERP systems on the market are developed using what is called a tree structure. HiFlow’s Workflow Diagram, however, is developed based on a graph, a non-linear data structure that organizes data in an interconnected network. This allows for more comprehensive information to be included in the diagram.
Another innovation is the mapping of actual production processes with technological parameters and costs assigned to each of them.
Thanks to this, managers can compare production costs calculated for the job in the estimate, versus production costs as it is released into scheduling, and finally, managers see shop floor data collection costs. In this way, they can identify problems and increase production efficiency at the level of each production operation.
AI (Artificial intelligence) is a key element in the Workflow Diagram. It detects possible errors in operations presented in the HiFlow Workflow Diagram before they occur during production. As a result, many very costly problems can be avoided.
According to Jack J. Lafler, VP of Sales and Technical Services, “With our Workflow Diagram innovation, companies avoid many very costly manufacturing mistakes. The visibility of the diagram is unique; any authorized user can ‘see’ the layers of workflow in great detail, and on one screen, making the process from estimate to shop floor move seamlessly, with few touches.”
In short, the HiFlow Workflow Diagram is an innovative technological development for the production process in the form of a graph structure in JDF; the Workflow Diagram uses a comprehensive database from within the HiFlow system, as well as artificial intelligence to produce maximum efficiency for packaging, label and printing companies. It took HiFlow’s team almost three years and several iterations, before the functionality and UI of the Workflow Diagram was implemented into the HiFlow MIS system. The technology was released into the North American market in 2019.